Hi Jay;

I've noticed the aspen at my local Home Depot as well. It seems heavier than spruce, but in smaller trim areas would probably be fine. I believe aspen to be at least as strong as the softwoods we usually use in kayak building.

One peculiarity with the aspen I saw was that it was laminated from smaller widths of board! Every aspen board was actually composed of 2 or more pieces. I don't know if that was peculiar to the stock at this store or not. You might comment as to whether this is true of the material you saw.

Best Regards, Spidey